The
book entitled The Twenty-four Paragons of
Filial Piety was written by the Chinese scholar Guo Jujing during the Yuan
Dynasty.His pen name was Yizi, and he
is known in Japan as Kaku Kyokei.The book recounts the self-sacrificing behavior of twenty-four sons and
daughters who go to extreme lengths to honor their parents, stepparents,
grandparents, and parents-in-law.Many
of the images in this series appear Western in style, rather than Japanese, and
were probably copied from Italian prints.Robinson lists only fourteen prints in this series, and it is likely
that the total number of designs is substantially fewer than twenty-four.These prints are each about 10 by 14 inches
(25 by 36 centimeters), a size known as ôban.
Two different seals of the publisher Wakasa-ya Yoichi are used in this series.

Japanese name:
Taishun (大舜)

Chinese name:
T’a Shun (Dashun)

Legend:
Despite a neglectful father who favored his cruel step-mother and her son,
Taishun cultivated land for his parents on MountLi, where elephants and birds helped him with the
difficult task.According to legend,
Taishun eventually became emperor of China.

Robinson:
S13.1

This is an example of the
other known edition of the above print.The patterns of bokashi (graded
coloration) in the foreground, sky and hills are very different.

Japanese name:
Môsô (孟宗)

Chinese name:
Mêng Tsung (Meng Zong)

Legend:
Môsô fulfilled his sick mother’s wish to eat bamboo shoots in mid-winter by
journeying to a snow covered bamboo grove, where after praying, he
miraculously found a huge cache of delicious bamboo shoots beneath the
snow.Here he is carrying a hoe
through the snow.

Robinson:
S13.2

This is a badly faded print
of the same design.It illustrates the
principle that different colored inks fade at different rates.The natural colorants used for the reds,
yellows and browns are barely visible, whereas the blues and blacks are
virtually unchanged.The blue pigment
is the chemical, ferric-ferrocyanide, an early import into Japan.It is known
as Prussian blue in English and as either bero
or bero-ai in Japanese.The Japanese names are derived from “Berlin”Kuniyoshi -
Mirror of the 24 Paragons of Filial Piety (S13.13), Gomo carrying a smoking
vessel to ward off mosquitoes.

This is an example of
another state of the above design.The
patterns of bokashi (graded
coloration), especially in the foreground,are very different.

Japanese name:
Binshiken

Chinese name:
Min-tzu-ch’ien

Legend:
Binshiken entreated his father to have mercy on the former’s new stepmother
after his father found out that Binshiken was being mistreated.Here Binshiken is sweeping snow outside the
house where his stepmother stands with her two younger biologic children.

Robinson:
S13.3

Image courtesy of Marie de
Strycker

Japanese name:
Sôshin (曾参)

Chinese name:
Tsêng Ts’an (Zeng Can)

Legend:
Sôshin was gathering wood in the forest one day when his mother back at home
bit her own finger in anger at her son’s absence.Feeling his mother’s pain, he immediately
returned home.Here Sôshin is hurrying
home across a bridge to aid his mother (in the foreground).

Robinson:
S13.4

Japanese name:
Ôshô (王祥)

Chinese name:
Wang Hsiang

Legend:
When his stepmother wanted to eat fresh fish in mid-winter, Ôshô went to a
frozen pond and lay naked on the ice until it melted in order to catch fish
for her.Here he is fishing in the
snow with two relatives admiring the fish he has just caught.

Robinson:
S13.5

Image courtesy of Richard
Illing

Japanese name:
Rôraishi

Chinese name: Lao Lai Tzu

Legend: At
age 70, Rôraishi still dressed and behaved like a young child to amuse his
senile parents.Here he is playing
with children’s toys.

Robinson:
S13.6

Japanese name:
Kyôshi (姜詩)

Chinese name:
Chiang Shih (Jiang Shi)

Legend:
Kyôshi, along with his wife, traveled great distances to get good water and
fresh carp desired by his aged mother.However, one day a fresh spring suddenly bubbled up in their own
garden and provided excellent water as well as fish.Here Kyôshi is netting a fish in the river
that formed outside his mother’s cottage.

Robinson:
S13.7

These are two simplified
and less labor intensive later printing of the above design.The delicate shading (bokashi) in the sky, horizon, mountain, roofs and water has been
simplified or eliminated.Bokashi was achieved by hand-applying
a gradation of ink to the wooden printing block rather than inking the block
uniformly.This hand-application had
to be repeated for each sheet of paper that was printed.Although not bokashi, the complex pattern of two solid colors for the rocks
and earth in the foreground has also been simplified.

Japanese name:
Tô-fujin (唐夫人)

Chinese name:
T’ang Fu-jên (Tang Furen)

Legend:
Tô-fujin (also known as wife Tang) suckled her toothless grandmother at her
breasts.

Robinson: S13.8

Japanese name:
Yo Ko (楊沓)

Chinese name:
Yang Hsiang (Yang Xiang)

Legend:Yo Ko at 14 years of age was accompanying his father into the mountains
when a hungry tiger leapt out at them.Without thinking of his own life, Yo
Ko protectively jumped in front of his father and
thus scared off the tiger with his show of determined will.

Robinson: S13.9

Japanese name:
To Ei (董永)

Chinese name:
Tung Yung (Dong Yong)

Legend: To
Ei indentured himself to a weaver in order to raise money for his father’s
burial.One day he met a woman who, in
the first hour after their marriage, wove enough silk to fulfill the terms of
his contract and then revealed herself to be the Heavenly Weaver (Shokujo) before
ascending to heaven.

Robinson:
S13.10

Image courtesy of Richard
Illing

Another state of the above
design

Japanese name:
Kwakkyo (郭巨)

Chinese name:
Kuo Chü (Guo Ju)

Legend:
Kwakkyo, lamenting the fact that his aged mother was going hungry because
food was being eaten by his infant son, prepared to kill the baby.While digging the grave he discovered a pot
of gold with an attached note (or inscription) that the treasure was meant
for him.

Robinson:
S13.11

Another state of the above
print

Yet another state

This is a key block print for the above design.It is an impression pulled from the first
woodblock made by a carver from the artist’s original drawing.The artist would write instructions for
each color on a separate key block print, and the woodblock for each color
was cut using one of these as a guide.Registration marks (kento)
are characteristically found on Japanese key block prints (the ‘L’ in the
left lower corner and the bar on the right side of the bottom margin).Kento
are cut in each woodblock, so that the paper can be properly aligned on each
woodblock during printing.In addition to being a guide for carving the color
woodblocks, the key block was also used to apply black ink (usually) in the printing
process.

Japanese name:
Rikuseki (陸績)

Chinese name:
Lu Chi (Lu Ji)

Legend:
When Rikuseki was six years old, he was invited to the home of a wealthy
neighbor where he was given some persimmons, which he slipped into his
robes.Upon leaving, the fruit fell
out of his robes, and Rikuseki explained that he intended to take them home
for his mother.Here Rikuseki stoops
to pick up the fallen persimmons.

Robinson:
S13.12

Japanese name:
Gomô (呉猛)

Chinese name:
Wu Mêng

Legend:
Eight-year-old Gomô would let himself be bitten by mosquitoes to spare his
sleeping parents.Here he is carrying
a smoking pot to keep mosquitoes away from his sleeping father.

Robinson:
S13.13

Image courtesy of Richard
Illing

Another state of the above
design

Japanese name:
Ôhô (王褒)

Chinese name:
Wang P’ou (Wang Bao)

Legend:
Ôhô would rush to his mother’s grave during thunder storms to comfort her
spirit, because she had feared lightning while alive.

Robinson:
S13.14

Another state of the above
design with brown foreground

Japanese name:
Enshi

Chinese name:
Yen Tzu

Legend:
Enshi disguised himself in a deer skin in order to capture a doe, which he
could milk in order to cure his parents’ eye disease.Hidden in the deer herd, he was mistaken
for a deer by hunters who roundly scolded him.However, when they heard his explanation
the hunters had only praise.Here
Enshi is being shot at from a wooded hill by a hunter of markedly European
appearance.

Robinson:
S79.6

NOTE: This
print has the same title (二十四孝童子鑑) and general format and as the above designs, but
is dated 8th month of 1853.Robinson lists it as part of the 1853 series, Twenty-four Chinese
Paragons of Filial Piety.I am
grateful to Dom Gilormini for this image.

“Robinson” refers
to listing in Kuniyoshi: The
Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca,
NY, 1982) and its privately published
supplement.